Two of the proudest clubs in South Australia will take to the field on Saturday knowing they’ve already secured promotion back to the top tier of local football for 2019.

A challenging 2017 season saw Adelaide Blue Eagles relegated from the top-flight for the first time in almost 30 years. A solid 2018 season where they finished top of the table with 15 wins from 22 games meant the pain was only short lived.

An impressive back end of the year for Vojo Gluscevic’s squad, recording 7 out of 8 possible victories, secured first place and automatic promotion for Blue Eagles. Contributions from Italian imports Gianmacro Mancini (12) and Pietro Pegollo (11) solved the side’s goal scoring problems from the previous season.

Raiders have spent the last two seasons fighting to get back to the National Premier League after suffering relegation in 2016. After overcoming Blue Eagles by what ended up being a comfortable aggregate score line across their two-leg semi-final playoff, the Gepps Cross based club watched on intensely last week as Blue Eagles faced Modbury Jets for the remaining place in the Grand Final.

The extended journey back to the top tier made witnessing last week’s 4-1 extra time victory for Blue Eagles over Modbury Jets that little bit sweeter for Kuzman’s side.

Raiders took it upon themselves to recruit heavily over the summer to ensure they would be around the mark for promotion this season, welcoming the experience of Jonathan Negus (MetroStars), Adam Van Dommele (MetroStars), Scott Tunbridge (MetroStars), Michael Acton (Adelaide City), Paul Blefari (Adelaide City) and Aaron Acton (Para Hills Knights). They then bolstered the squad at the midpoint of the season, recruiting Joshua Mori from Adelaide City.

Their head to head count sits at 2 wins a piece for 2018. With promotion already secured, expect these two confident sides to play with a sense of freedom and desire to cap off an already memorable year.